Morning MoneyBeat Asia: Will Santa Give the Market a Taper This Year?

Market Snap: At the New York close: S&P 500 down 0.3% at 1802.62. DJIA down 0.3% at 15973.13. Nasdaq Comp down 0.2% at 4060.49. Treasury yields down; 10-year at 2.797%. Nymex crude oil up 1.2% at $98.51. Gold up 2.2% at $1,262.40/ounce.

How We Got Here: Even as equity investors seem to be on board with the idea that good news (for the world) is good news (for the market), they also seem to be more interested in locking in the gains they’ve already accrued this year rather than bank on even more to come.

Traders don’t appear to be very concerned with talk of bubbles, tops, downturns, or tapering, but as next week’s Fed meeting approaches, there is the usual reading of the tea leaves, and it seems there is a non-trivial chance that the Fed does indeed begin the so-called tapering program this month. U.S. equities have had a red-letter year, so why tempt fate?

If the Fed does taper in December, it would tell investors that the central bank thinks the economy is strong enough to at least start walking on its own – and that message is coming sooner than expected. It would also tell them that the proverbial punch bowl is slowly, ever so slowly, going to be taken away.

Coming Up: The Santa Claus rally is having trouble gaining traction. The Nikkei’s looking flat, and Australian stocks appear set to open weaker. “The latest ASX sell-off has broken through a key technical retracement zone of between 5,288 and 5,248 and today will retest the 5,118 October lows – so we’re not sure if Santa Claus is visiting the ASX this year,” Scott Schuberg, CEO at Rivkin, wrote to clients.

On the heels of Japan’s disappointing GDP report, investors will be keen to see the November corporate goods price index and the October machine orders. The Nikkei is up 50% this year, and the yen has been predictably weakening, so there isn’t any real danger that the market’s going to tack on investors unexpectedly. Still, with the one-year anniversary of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s election coming up, there is some anxiety about the benefits of “Abenomics.”

What You Missed Overnight

Regulators Vote to Back Volcker RuleAll five regulatory agencies put to a vote and approved the Volcker rule on Tuesday, ushering in a new era of tough oversight that drills to the core of Wall Street’s profitable markets and trading businesses.

Stocks Slide as Investors Lock In GainsU.S. stocks declined as investors looked to cash in on some of the year’s strong gains and weighed the potential impact of reduced Federal Reserve stimulus.

GM Names Barra CEOGeneral Motors named its head of product development Mary Barra as its first female chief executive officer and successor to Dan Akerson, who will exit the company next month.

From The Wall Street Journal Asia

Australia Under Pressure to Aid Auto MakersAustralia’s conservative government faces pressure from unions and General Motors Co. to throw a lifeline to the auto industry, amid warnings of thousands of job losses if local production ends.

China Conclave Seeks Economic Growth TargetChina opened a conference on economic policy aimed at setting a target for growth next year and mapping out reforms amid a debate over how to balance expansion and needed structural overhauls.

Madoff Plus Five: Where Are They Now? Five years after Bernard L. Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme was unveiled, here’s a look at what several of his family members, employees and investors are up to now and how their lives were forever altered by the biggest financial fraud in history.

Gains, With a Side of VolatilityBank of America Merrill Lynch thinks the U.S. stock market has some extra room to run next year, with a target of 2000 for the S&P 500 at year-end 2014.